Is the Economy Improving or Getting Worse?

Unemployment is not an easy place for anyone to be, especially when they want and need to provide for themselves and their families. The Great Recession led to many Americans feel the pain of unemployment. The nation is now in a phase of slow recovery. For this assignment, you will look at economic data about Nashville and beyond to determine the state of the economy in Rutherford Co, and the United States and whether it is improving or not.

Task: Students will create an unemployment journal to take notes over various immigrant experiences they've explored in this web-quest to meet the following objectives:

• Compare and Contrast the various recessions of the 20th and 21st century.
• Analyze economic data to draw conclusions about the economic health of the local economy
• Synthesize various sources of economic data and other sources to construct a conclusion about whether the economy of Murfreesboro,TN  and the United Sstates as a whole is improving or not.

You will create an Unemployment Journal to keep track of your notes and artifacts from this web-quest. (1) Create your Google Doc. (2) Put your name in the title of your document or at the top of the page. (3) Share your document with your teacher. Please make sure you title each journal entry. For example, your first entry will be labeled,"Step 1: The Nation's Economic Landscape," your second entry will be titled,"Step 2: Deep Recession Sharply Altered U.S. Jobless Map," and so on.

Step 1: The Nation's Economic Landscape[1], and the unemployment rate in recent months [2].

A. Look over the data from the above linked websites and answer the following questions in your journal:

                   1. What was TN's jobless rate in December 2007?

                   2. What was TN's jobless rate in June 2009?

                   3. What was TN's jobless rate in August 2011?

                   4. What was TN's jobless rate in the BLS Local Unemployment Statistics? What month does the data reflect?

Step  2: A Brief History of U.S. Unemployment [3]

A. Read the article and look at the data from the table linked above. Answer the following questions in your journal:

                   1. What was the unemployment rate for the U.S. in 2007?

                   2. What was the unemployment rate for the U.S. in 2009?

                   3. What was the unemployment rate for the U.S. in 2011?

                   4. During each of these time periods, did Wisconsin have a lower unemployment rate or a higher unemployment rate                            than the country?

                   5. Choose two Presidents that are listed in the article. Compare and contrast the different ways Presidents since World                            War II have responded to recessions. Are there any common threads? How did they acted differently?

                   6. Choose the President that you believe had the most effective strategy for responding to recession and unemployment. Find a credible news article or historical article that explains their strategy. Copy and paste the link to your journal. Then, explain (1) what President you chose, (2) what that President did (3) why you think their strategy was most effective. (Write at least 5 sentences for this question.

Step 3: Bureau of Labor Statistics [4]

A. Look over the data from the above linked website and answer the following questions in your journal:

                   1. What was the most recent unemployment rate in the U.S.?

                   2. Is unemployment in the United States trending downward or upward?

Step 4: Local Unemployment data in TN [5]

A. Look at the data from the above linked article and answer the following questions in your journal:

                   1. When is this data from?

                   2. What is the unemployment rate in Kenosha?

                   3. Where does the unemployment rate of Kenosha fall relative to the rest of the state?

Step 5: Nashville Area Labor Statistics [6]

A. Look at the data from the above linked website and answer the following questions in your journal:

                   1. What do the economic indicators tell you about the health of the local economy? Is the economy in Nashville Area improving or getting worse? Why? Make at least 3 points and use specific data to back up your points.

Step 6: U.S. GDP at a Glance [7], and Graph of GDP growth over last 4 years [8]

A. Read the above article and answer the following questions in your journal:

                    1. What was the GDP growth rate (or contraction) in the last quarter you have data for?

                    2. What has been the trend of GDP growth or contraction over the last year? 4 years?

Step 7: Why obsessing over economic indicators may hinder economic improvement [9]

A. Look over the article linked above to answer the following question:

                    1. What critique does this article offer about using unemployment data to determine our course of action?

Step 8: Is Gross National Happiness more important than the GDP? [10]

A. Look over the article linked above to answer the following questions:

                   1. Why has the Kingdom of Bhutan adopted Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a formal economic indicator?

                   2. How are GDP and GNH different?

                   3. How does using GNH change the answer to the question "how healthy is the economy?"

                   4. Do you agree with the Bhutanese that GNH is a more important indicator to use than GDP? Why or why not?

Step 9: Write a News Article

A. Your final task is to bring all you have learned together into a news story describing the current employment situation in Kenosha. Your article should be at least 250 words, and should explain the following:

1. "Is the current economic situation in Rutherford Co and the United States improving or getting worse? What should the government do in response if anything?" Answer in relation to the following:

a. National unemployment rate

b. Unemployment rate in TN

c. Unemployment rate in Nashville and other local counties

d. Economic indicator data from Nashville and surroounding areas

e. Information about U.S. recessions

f. GDP data

Your journal will be evaluated on the accuracy and completion of your entries.

Use the check-list below
to make sure you have adequately completed this quest.
Once you have checked to see that your journal is complete, 

Completed "The Nation's Economic Landscape"                     3 points
Completed "A Brief History of U.S. Unemployment"              3 points
Completed "Bureau of Statistics"                                        2 points
Completed "Local Unemployment data in TN"                       2 points
Completed "Nashville Area  Labor Statistics"                        3 points
Completed "U.S. GDP at a Glance"                                     2 points
Completed Steps 7 and 8                                                 5 points
Completed "Write a News Article"                                     10 points

                                                                              Total 50 points

This is mostly an original work, but credit can be given to the following websites for ideas that have been borrowed or modified:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/studentnews/01/17/activity.business.cycl…

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/help-wanted-debating-unemp…;

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/economics/unempl…